A technical team under the leadership of Chintamani Siwakoti, deputy governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), on Wednesday left for India to hold talks on forming a modality to exchange demonetised Indian banknotes of 500 and 1,000 denominations held by Nepali citizens. 

The team includes Bhisma Raj Dhungana, executive director of NRB’s Foreign Exchange Management Department; Ananda Raj Dhakal, joint secretary of the Finance Ministry; and a representative from the Nepali Embassy in India. 

The team will hold talks with representatives of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and fix a modality under which Nepalis holding the demonetised Indian banknotes will get exchange facility in Nepal, according to the NRB.

RBI, last week, had written to Nepal to propose a date to send its delegates to India to discuss the matter. Responding to the letter from the Indian Finance Ministry, Nepali side had requested for a meeting on Thursday.

“RBI agreed on the proposed date,” said NRB Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Poudel. “Our team will hold talks RBI officials, and if necessary, even with the officials of India’s Finance Ministry.”

During the meeting, the Nepali delegates will ask the Indian government to allow exchange facility to Nepali citizens through banking channel. “We will ask them to provide exchange facility for up to IRs25,000 in the banned denominations,” said Poudel. “As, Nepali citizens were allowed to carry up to IRs 25,000, in banned denominations, it is logical to provide exchange facility up to that limit.”

Similarly, the technical team will also request the Indian government to increase the annual quota of Indian currency supplied to Nepal. Currently, the Indian government supplies IRs 6 billion in cash to the NRB every year. After the demonetization of the largest banknotes, Indian government had stopped supplying Indian currency to Nepal citing deficit in its own country.